The wealth was spread among many deserving Emmy winners in Monday's prime-time NBC telecast. Modern Family, Glee, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Dexter got more than one award. But by far the biggest winner, with five awards in all, was HBO's Temple Grandin. And deservedly so: When it premiered, I praised it as the best telemovie in years...
Supporting players Julia Ormond and David Strathairn and star Claire Danes all won for Grandin, as did director Mick Jackson and the telemovie itself, as best movie. Other noteworthy triumphs last night included ABC's Modern Family, winning for script, supporting actor Eric Stonestreet, and outstanding comedy; Glee, winning for supporting actress Jane Lynch, guest actor Neil Patrick Harris and director (series creator Ryan Murphy); Mad Men, which won for writing and, for the third year in a row, for outstanding drama; and Breaking Bad, where Aaron Paul won for supporting actor and Bryan Cranston, for the third year in a row, won as outstanding actor.
Surprises included Kyra Sedgwick winning for The Closer as outstanding dramatic actress, Edie Falco winning for outstanding comedic actress for Nurse Jackie (Even she was susprised: "I'm not funny"), and, again deservedly, Jim Parsons as outstanding comic actor for The Big Bang Theory.
The Emmys themselves ended on time, were fast-moving and rather entertaining, and even the clips were selected and presented intelligently. The only misstep were the jokes recited as winners came up to the stage -- too hard to hear, and seldom worth the effort. But for a three-hour show that handed out 28 prime-time awards and acknowledged a few more, it's ridiculous to complain. This year's Emmy telecast was a solid success, as was host Jimmy Fallon, who had energy to spare from the film-to-live opening segment on.
In what I'm fairly certain is unprecedented in the annals of TV criticism, I'm proud to steer you towards a father-son tag-team review -- specifically, to my son Mark, whose own review of the Emmys focuses specifically on host Jimmy Fallon. You can read it (once he files it; he's not as fast as his dad, yet) by clicking HERE.
And as an added bonus, another writer on this site, Eric Gould, chimed in with a surprise delivery this morning -- his own take on the Emmys, for which I thank him. And in which he thanks me, and almost everybody else. You can read that one HERE.
Also, Ed Bark, on his own Uncle Barky website, was ambitious enough to watch both the NBC telecast AND the network's official, different webcast -- so we share that insightful column (as usual) with our readers HERE, as well as on the Contributors blog and on Ed's own blog page here at TVWW. Then finally, there's our other Ed, Ed Martin, who decided to weigh in, too. His contribution can be found HERE.
And on Tuesday, I'll tally up the winners among both the critics and readers, to figure out who gets to boast, who gets a prize -- and who, around here in our ranks, has some 'splainin' to do...